I suspect one reason for the vastly different takes on Class D is a matter of physiology. People's HF perception vary dramatically, and something irritating to one person may not register much for another. This is particularly true w.r.t. gender - women tend to have superior HF acuity, and my wife can spot treble issues almost instantly. Faults that take me a while to pick up will drive her out of the room in a heartbeat. (She can't pick up on bass notes for her life though!)
I haven't heard much of the latest SOTA Class D, but I did get a brief listen to the Devialet 250 recently. I thought it sounded quite good, smooth and full with killer bass. There's something about the way Class D does low frequencies - not only the power, control and definition of bass notes, but also the evenness of response. Traditional amps sound lumpy by comparison, though this might be more a function of the switching supply than the actual amplification circuit. (Chord amps are Class AB but with a switching supply, and have a similar evenness of response.) I still have the nagging feeling that the Devialet doesn't quite have the air, openness and dimensionality of the best linear amps, but I'd need a more careful audition to ascertain that.
In any case, I'm going to seek out some Class D for review - I have my eyes on an nCore implementation, and will look for something based on ICEPower 1200AS2. Recommendations appreciated.
Cheers,
TAWW
taww.co
I haven't heard much of the latest SOTA Class D, but I did get a brief listen to the Devialet 250 recently. I thought it sounded quite good, smooth and full with killer bass. There's something about the way Class D does low frequencies - not only the power, control and definition of bass notes, but also the evenness of response. Traditional amps sound lumpy by comparison, though this might be more a function of the switching supply than the actual amplification circuit. (Chord amps are Class AB but with a switching supply, and have a similar evenness of response.) I still have the nagging feeling that the Devialet doesn't quite have the air, openness and dimensionality of the best linear amps, but I'd need a more careful audition to ascertain that.
In any case, I'm going to seek out some Class D for review - I have my eyes on an nCore implementation, and will look for something based on ICEPower 1200AS2. Recommendations appreciated.
Cheers,
TAWW
taww.co